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Call Me by Your Name

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Published: Dec 18, 2018

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Works Cited

• Aciman, A. (2007). Call Me By Your Name. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Guadagnino, L. (Director). (2017). Call Me By Your Name [Motion Picture]. Frenesy Film Company.
• Ehrlich, D. (2017). "Call Me by Your Name Review." IndieWire. Retrieved from https://www.indiewire.com/2017/01/call-me-by-your-name-review-luca-guadagnino-1201778129/
• Gleiberman, O. (2017). "Film Review: 'Call Me By Your Name'." Variety. Retrieved from https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/call-me-by-your-name-review-1201963392/
• Chang, J. (2017). "Review: Call Me By Your Name." The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/movies/call-me-by-your-name-review-armie-hammer.html
• Nashawaty, C. (2017). "Call Me By Your Name is a sensuous, sun-soaked movie masterpiece." Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved from https://ew.com/movies/2017/11/22/call-me-by-your-name-ew-review/
• Breen, L. (2019). "The Sartorial Storytelling of Call Me By Your Name." AnOther Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/11420/the-sartorial-storytelling-of-call-me-by-your-name
• Murphy, M. (2018). "The Music of Call Me By Your Name." Den of Geek. Retrieved from https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-music-of-call-me-by-your-name/
• Carucci, J. (2018). "The Fashion and Style of Call Me By Your Name." Vogue. Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com/article/call-me-by-your-name-fashion
• Simek, P. (2018). "Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom on the Making of Call Me By Your Name." Texas Monthly. Retrieved from

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The Empty, Sanitized Intimacy of “Call Me by Your Name”

By Richard Brody

Luca Guadagnino’s new film, “Call Me by Your Name,” may be progressive in its appropriately admiring depiction of a loving and erotic relationship between two young men, but its storytelling is backward. It is well known, and therefore no spoiler to say, that it’s a story, set in 1983, about a summer fling between a graduate student named Oliver (Armie Hammer), who’s in his mid-twenties, and Elio (Timothée Chalamet), the seventeen-year-old son of the professor with whom Oliver is working and at whose lavish estate in northern Italy he’s staying. Half a year after their brief relationship, Oliver and Elio speak, seemingly for the first time in many months. Elio affirms that his parents were aware of the relationship and offered their approval, to which Oliver responds, “You’re so lucky; my father would have carted me off to a correctional facility.” And that’s the premise of the film: in order to have anything like a happy adolescence and avoid the sexual repression and frustration that seem to be the common lot, it’s essential to pick the right parents. The movie is about, to put it plainly, being raised right.

If Guadagnino had any real interest in his characters, what Elio and Oliver say about their parents near the end of the movie would have been among the many confidences that they share throughout. Long before the two become lovers, they’re friends—somewhat wary friends, who try to express their desire but, in the meantime, spend lots of time together eating meals and taking strolls, on bike rides and errands—and the story is inconceivable without the conversation that they’d have had as their relationship developed. And yet, as the movie is made, what they actually say to each other is hardly seen or heard.

They’re both intellectuals. Oliver is an archeologist and a classicist with formidable philological skills and philosophical training; he reads Stendhal for fun, Heraclitus for work, and writes about Heidegger. Elio, who’s trilingual (in English, French, and Italian), is a music prodigy who transcribes by ear music by Schoenberg and improvises, at the piano, a Liszt-like arrangement of a piece by Bach and a Busoni-like arrangement of the Liszt-like arrangement, and he’s literature-smitten as well. But for Guadagnino it’s enough for both of them to post their intellectual bona fides on the screen like diplomas. The script (written by James Ivory) treats their intelligence like a club membership, their learning like membership cards, their intellectualism like a password—and, above all, their experience like baggage that’s checked at the door.

What their romantic lives have been like prior to their meeting, they never say. Is Oliver the first man with whom Elio has had an intimate relationship? Has Elio been able to acknowledge, even to himself, his attraction to other men, or is the awakening of desire for a male a new experience for him? What about for Oliver? Though Elio and Oliver are also involved with women in the course of the summer, they don’t ever discuss their erotic histories, their desires, their inhibitions, their hesitations, their joys, their heartbreaks. They’re the most tacit of friends and the most silent of lovers—or, rather, in all likelihood they’re voluble and free-spoken, as intellectually and personally and verbally intimate as they are physically intimate, as passionate about their love lives as about the intellectual fires that drive them onward—but the movie doesn’t show them sharing these things. Guadagnino can’t be bothered to imagine (or to urge Ivory to imagine) what they might actually talk about while sitting together alone. Scenes deliver some useful information to push the plot ahead and then cut out just as they get rolling, because Guadagnino displays no interest in the characters, only in the story.

For that matter, Guadagnino offers almost nothing of Elio’s parents’ talk about whatever might be going on with their son and Oliver. Not that the parents (played by Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar) are absentee—they’re present throughout, and there are even scenes featuring them apart from both Elio and Oliver, talking politics and movies with friends, but there isn’t a scene of them discussing their son’s relationship. They don’t express anything about it at all, whether approval or fear or even practical concern regarding the reactions of the neighbors. The characters of “Call Me by Your Name” are reduced to animated ciphers, as if Guadagnino feared that detailed practical discussions, or displays of freedom of thought and action, might dispel the air of romantic mystery and silent passion that he conjures in lieu of relationships. The elision of the characters’ mental lives renders “Call Me by Your Name” thin and empty, renders it sluggish; the languid pace of physical action is matched by the languid pace of ideas, and the result is an enervating emptiness.

There are two other characters whose near-total silence and self-effacement is a mark of Guadagnino’s blinkered and sanitized point of view—two domestic employees, the middle-aged cook and maid Mafalda (Vanda Capriolo) and the elderly groundskeeper and handyman Anchise (Antonio Rimoldi), who work for Elio’s family, the Perlmans. What do they think, and what do they say? They’re working for a Jewish family—the Perlmans, Elio tells Oliver (who’s also Jewish), are the only Jewish family in the region, even the only Jewish family ever to have set foot in the village—and they observe a brewing bond between Elio and Oliver. Do they care at all? Does the acceptance of this homosexual relationship exist in a bubble within the realm of intellectuals, and does that tolerance depend upon the silencing of the working class? Is there any prejudice anywhere in the area where the story takes place?

The one hint that there might be any at all comes in a brief scene of Elio and Oliver sharing a furtive caress in a shadowed arcade, when they brush hands and Oliver says, “I would kiss you if I could.” (That pregnant line, typically, ends the scene.) Even there, where the setting—the sight lines between the town at large and the character’s standpoint—is of dramatic significance, Guadagnino has no interest in showing a broad view of the location, because of his bland sensibility and flimsy directorial strategy, because of his relentless delivery of images that have the superficial charm of picture postcards. Adding a reverse angle or a broad pan shot on a setting is something that Guadagnino can’t be bothered with, because it would subordinate the scene’s narrow evocations to complexities that risk puncturing the mood just as surely as any substantive discussion might do.

To be sure, there’s much that a good movie can offer beside smart talk and deep confidences; for that matter, the development of characters is a grossly overrated quality in movies, and some of the best directors often do little of it. There’s also a realm of symbol, of gesture, of ideas, of emotions that arise from careful attention to images or a brusque gestural energy; that’s where Guadagnino plants the movie, and that’s where the superficiality of his artistry emerges all the more clearly. He has no sense of positioning, of composition, of rhythm, but he’s not free with his camera, either; his actors are more or less in a constant proscenium of a frame that displays their action without offering a point of view.

The intimacy of Elio and Oliver is matched by very little cinematic intimacy. There are a few brief images of bodies intertwined, some just-offscreen or cannily framed sex, but no real proximity, almost no closeups, no tactile sense, no point of view of either character toward the other. Guadagnino rarely lets himself get close to the characters, because he seems to wish never to lose sight of the expensive architecture, the lavish furnishings, the travelogue locations, the manicured lighting, the accoutrements that fabricate the sense of “ order and beauty, luxury, calm, and sensuality .” All that’s missing is the Web site offering Elio-and-Oliver tours through the Italian countryside, with a stopover at the Perlman villa. Instead of gestural or pictorial evocations of intimacy, the performers act out the script’s emotions with a bland literalness that—due to the mechanistic yet vague direction—is often laughable, as in the case of the pseudo-James Dean-like grimacing that Guadagnino coaxes from Chalamet. Even the celebrated awkward dance that Oliver performs at an outdoor night spot was more exhilarating when performed to a Romanian song by an anonymous young man at a computer screen. Hammer is game, playful, and openhearted, but the scene as filmed is calculatedly cute and disingenuous. (Such faults in performance fall upon directors, not because they pull puppet strings but because they create the environment and offer the guidance from which the performances result, and then they choose what stays in the movie.)

There are moments of tenderness—telegraphed from miles away but nonetheless moving, as when Oliver grasps Elio’s bare shoulder and then makes light of it, when he reaches out to touch Elio’s hand, when Elio slides his bare foot over Oliver’s—that are simply and bittersweetly affecting. They’re in keeping with the story of a love affair of mutual discovery that is sheltered from social circumstances, from prejudice, from hostility, from side-eyes or religious dogma—and that nevertheless involves heartbreak. It’s a story about romantic melancholy and a sense of loss as a crucial element of maturation and self-discovery, alongside erotic exploration, fulfillment, and first love. The idea of the film is earnest, substantial, moving, and quite beautiful—in its idea, its motivation, its motivating principle. It offers, in theory, a sort of melancholy romantic realism. But, as rendered by Guadagnino, it remains at the level of a premise, a pitch, an index card.

Near the end of the film, Professor Perlman delivers a monologue to Elio that concentrates the movie’s sap of intellectualized understanding and empathy into a rich and potent Oscar syrup. The speech is moving and wise; Stuhlbarg’s delivery of it, in inflection and gesture, is finely burnished. Here, Guadagnino’s direction is momentarily incisive, in a way that it has not been throughout the film, perhaps because the professor’s academicized liberalism toward matters of sex is the one thing that truly excites the director. The entire film is backloaded—and it’s nearly emptied out in order for him to lay his cards, finally, on the table.

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By Anthony Lane

By Justin Chang

Call Me By Your Name – and why love and friendship were better understood in premodern times

Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature, University of Leicester

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This article contains spoilers.

One of the films most hotly tipped for Oscars success this year – and in my opinion most deserving of it – is Call Me By Your Name. The film has received rave reviews from critics and the public alike, largely because of the beautifully nuanced performances of its lead actors, Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet, and Luca Guadagnino’s inspired direction. It is nominated in three categories: Best Picture, Best Actor (Chalamet), and Best Adapted Screenplay (James Ivory).

Perhaps unusually for an academic, I prefer this film to its source: André Aciman’s 2007 novel . Not because Aciman’s novel is inferior: it, too, is a fine work, full of acute insights into the nature of desire, first love, selfhood. I prefer the film because it so stunningly visualises its exploration of the ambiguities and shades of intimacy, underpinned and deepened by profoundly premodern meditations on friendship.

From the film’s opening credits, superimposed on a series of fragmented Hellenistic statues, with eyeless and therefore ambiguous faces, sinuous limbs and youthful torsos, the audience is invited to cruise the past. Desire, and the twin perils of speaking or failing to speak it, haunt every sun-drenched frame.

This is a film saturated with scholarship, though it wears it lightly – after all, Mr Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a professor of archaeology, and Hammer’s character, Oliver, has come over from America to assist him and revise his own thesis for publication.

This scholarly context reminds us throughout of the difficulties of interpretation. Scholars speak about, with, on behalf of the slippery past in an attempt to connect it to the ever-changing present. But everyday life, too, can seem a fraught matter of trying to construe another’s intentions, their feelings, through the unsatisfactory ambiguities of language and gesture – just as Elio (Chalamet) struggles to articulate his feelings for Oliver, or to interpret the latter’s touch on his shoulder.

The film’s title alludes to Oliver and Elio’s loving pact to call each other by their own names, recognising that, as Guadagnino put it in a Q&A : “The other person makes you beautiful – enlightens you, elevates you.” This idea stems ultimately from Aristotle’s views on “true” friendship, but it echoes down the intervening centuries in countless works of art and literature exploring the idea that the friend is an “other self”, both a means to self-discovery and an ennobling end in itself.

For me, it is a scene between Elio’s parents which more fully fleshes out the premodern context for the film’s title. The Perlmans (Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar) are an empathetic pair, quietly but intensely proud of their talented and beautiful son.

In a key moment, Annella translates for her family a story from Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron about a handsome knight who loves in anguished silence until he cannot do other than ask his princess: “Is it better to speak or to stay silent?”

Their relationship is described as a “friendship” (both parents chime in with the German term “Freundschaft”, laughingly acknowledging its ambiguity), and, although Elio thinks he would “never be brave enough to ask a question like that”, it is via a discussion of this “16th century French romance” that he begins to confess his feelings for Oliver. This sets in motion their intense relationship, full of longing glances and things left unspoken.

Language and labels

The language of friendship has always been ambiguous. The Old English term “freond”, Middle English “frend”, Old French/Anglo-Norman “ami”, and many others can all refer to a friend and a lover. As the late academic Alan Bray showed , during the Renaissance the same words and gestures used to depict ennobling friendship could also compromise men with imputations of sodomy, if that was politically expedient. “Passionate friendship” was celebrated throughout the 19th century, unless and until it challenged orthodox dynamics of gender and power.

Even now, Western cultures devote a lot of energy to differentiating friendly and sexual intimacies, while remaining aware that the distinction is continually being collapsed. So perhaps premodern concepts of friendship (slippery and overdetermined) have more to offer contemporary concerns over identity and sexual politics than we might imagine.

Sometimes labels are crucial in forming strategic political alliances. But it’s worth noting that in a recent poll , over half of the young adults surveyed saw themselves not as “homosexual” or “heterosexual”, but as “something other than straight”. And Elio and Oliver don’t see the biological sex of their love object as constitutive of their identity. Both the film and the novel make it clear that they each have had (and will have) relationships with women as well as men.

But they also make it clear that this relationship is special: deeper than ordinary friendship, more intimate than sex, this bond will shape who they are for the rest of their lives. It brings them great pain as well as immense joy and pleasure.

A beautiful friendship

Close to the end of the film, comforting his son, devastated now Oliver has returned to the US, Perlman says “You’re too smart not to know how rare, how special what you two had was”. When Elio responds “Oliver was … Oliver”, his father invokes the 16th century essayist Montaigne’s famous celebration of his own friendship with La Boétie: “Parce que c’était lui: parce que c’était moi” (because it was he: because it was I). He then follows this up with a poignant acknowledgement that: “You had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you.”

Friendship’s ambiguity becomes a means to talk about something that is too precious, or too raw, to be talked about otherwise. But it also opens up this particular, special relationship as a means of contemplating other relationships of different kinds and degrees. Elio’s father counsels his son that pain is not to be avoided if it means deadening yourself: “To make yourself feel nothing, so as not to feel anything … what a waste.”

As the credits roll like the tears down Elio’s face, we might think about the year the film came out. 2017 was a difficult year for many. It may have been tempting at times to shut down; to opt out. But Call Me By Your Name offers more positive messages – that it is up to us how (or whether) to define our relationships; that reaching out to the other can enlarge and nourish the self; and, finally, that pain is the flipside of joy: accepting it, living on with the help of our families of birth or of choice, leaves open the possibility of future healing, future joy.

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The Literary Edit

Review: Call Me By Your Name – André Aciman

Despite the fact that in two weeks time, winter will officially be upon us in Sydney, the past week or so has seen the sort of balmy temperatures one might hope for during a UK summer. While the mornings are cooler; and the days shorter, the midday heat has been warm enough to justify an hour or two spent lounging on the beach, watching the ocean sparkle under the autumn sun. And thus it was, that before winter takes hold, and the days of sandy feet and sun-cooked skin are nothing but a distant memory that I wanted to squeeze in a read of André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name. While I’m a voracious reader all year round, a book set on the Italian Riviera is best read in sunnier climes, rather than curled up in bed with the rain beating down against the window pane.

For me, the book was something of a slow starter, though that might be attributed to the fact that I was reading it sporadically to begin with; a couple of pages here, a chapter there. For as soon as I sat down without my phone, laptop, or to-do list as a distraction, I was immediately engrossed with Aciman’s heady tale of a restless summer romance.

The story follows seventeen-year-old Elio and his father’s American house guest Oliver during a hot and heady six weeks at the family’s cliffside Italian villa. When Elio and Oliver develop an unlikely friendship it soon develops into a love affair, made all the more intense due to the balmy Italian and very beautiful landscape that acts as a backdrop to their developing feelings. As the story progresses, their relationship intensifies, but alas the impending summer sojourn coming to an end presses upon them.

Ripe with poetic and powerful prose, Call Me By Your Name is an evocative and atmospheric story that sweeps its readers away to the sun-soaked shores of the Italian Riviera. An intoxicating tale of infatuation, intimacy and overwhelm and of love and the suffering that often ensues, Call Me By Your Name is a beautiful coming of age story that will resonate with readers of all ages and act as a reminder of the careless and intense sort of love that fades with the seasons, but is lasting and long-lived.

Call Me By Your Name Book Synopsis

Call Me by Your Name  is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks’ duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman’s frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion.  Call Me by Your   Name  is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.

About André Aciman

André Aciman is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, CUNY and the director of The Writers’ Institute. He is the author of  Call Me by Your Name ,  Out of Egypt: A Memoir ,  False Papers ,  Alibis ,  Eight White Nights ,  Harvard Square , and  Enigma Variations . He is the co-author and editor of  Letters of Transit  and of  The Proust Project . André is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as a fellowship from The New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He has written for publications including  The New York Times ,  The New Yorker ,  The New Republic ,  The New York Review of Books  and several volumes of  Best American Essays . He is currently working on a novel and a collection of essays.

After some further reading? I love this Call Me By Your Name book review from The New York Times. Looking for something a bit more in-depth? Have a read of this Call Me By Your Name book analysis .

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3 comments on “Review: Call Me By Your Name – André Aciman”

I saw the film in late-March 2018 and it immediately became my favourite movie of all time. Everything about it was absolutely 100% beautiful and there were a lot of things about the story and the characters that I could directly relate to. After I watched the film, I ran out and bought the book – I had heard that the book jumps ahead 15-20 years and I was desperate to find out what had happened between Elio and Oliver.

I don’t often cry whilst reading, but the final chapter of Call Me By Your Name had me crying like A BABY! I absolutely loved it, just as much as I did the movie. What an incredible story 🙂

Thanks for stopping by Vanessa! I agree, it really is such a beautiful book, and the last chapter is very moving indeed. How does the film compare? I’ve heard great things about it but not from someone who’s read the book as well and I’m always nervous about watching the film of a book I’ve adored xo

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Call Me By Your Name

André aciman, everything you need for every book you read..

Identity and Attraction

In Call Me by Your Name , André Aciman implies that romantic attraction often involves a recognition of oneself in someone else. As seventeen-year-old Elio experiences his first serious relationship, he finds himself drawn to the ways he and Oliver are the same. After all, they’re both Jewish, both interested in the life of the mind, and both attracted by similar physical features. These similarities are especially significant for Elio, since he’s in the midst…

Pain, Heartbreak, and Regret

Throughout Call Me by Your Name , Aciman presents emotional pain as valuable, inevitable, and worth experiencing. Because the circumstances of Elio and Oliver ’s relationship make it difficult for them to sustain their romance, Elio understands from the beginning that he’s destined for heartbreak. Throughout the summer, he becomes more and more infatuated with Oliver, all the while knowing that he’ll eventually leave for good. This is partially why he doesn’t pursue Oliver at…

Coming of Age and Maturity

Because Elio is such an intelligent and sophisticated narrator, it’s easy to forget that he’s too young to engage in a love affair with a twenty-four-year-old man. Elio’s assessment of his relationship with Oliver is so mature that the age difference between them often seems arbitrary or irrelevant. At the same time, though, Aciman is no doubt aware of the tension caused by the fact that Elio is a minor, something that not only adds…

Language and Communication

Aciman’s novel showcases the significance of language in fraught relational contexts. Especially in the initial stages of his relationship with Oliver , Elio desperately scrutinizes the language he and his lover use, often obsessing over how Oliver has worded a phrase or how he has handled himself in a conversation. He pays such close attention to these nuances because they provide him with the only chance he has to express his feelings. Unfortunately, though, he…

Time and Anticipation

Throughout Call Me by Your Name , anticipation is often cast as unbearable and torturous. This is because Elio doesn’t know whether or not something romantic will happen between Oliver and himself. Although there are a number of indications that they will develop a loving relationship, their future remains unclear for the entire first half of the novel. During this time, Elio is tormented by the way time moves—he knows Oliver will soon be gone…

Call Me By Your Name

48 pages • 1 hour read

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Part 2, Pages 66-117

Part 2, Pages 117-163

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Essay Topics

Genre Context: Romance

Call Me By Your Name is a novel within the romance genre , in which the central conflict and motivator of the plot is love. Call Me By Your Name both uses some romance genre tropes while subverting other elements. In the romance genre, narratives focus on one character as the central protagonist as they navigate the joys and turbulences of romantic relationships. In this novel, Elio is the hero whose perspective informs the reader’s understanding of romance. The conflict of the novel is driven by conflicts of romance: whether Oliver likes Elio in return, whether their lovemaking will change their relationship, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

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Connect with us, review of the movie call me by your name : a critical essay, by maya cruz.

Call Me By Your Name is an extraordinary story showcasing genuine romance: fleeting and pure. The story brings the spontaneous essence of love to the light, despite unfavorable circumstances.

The captivatingly beautiful novel-turned-film, Call Me By Your Name , dares to toy with the idea of pure, boundless, consuming romance despite unfavorable odds. Recently more than ever before, people have come together to fight for love, leaving behind the dated ideals of heteronormative relationships. In fact, Call Me By Your Name fights for so much beyond destroying the stigma around homosexuality. Between summer days, swimming at the secluded lake and getting lost in books, peach trees and bike bells, Oliver and Elio’s story encapsulates the true and fleeting essence of love that dominates the ill hand they were dealt. 

This expression of passionate, intimate love governs the story, leaving the aspects of their circumstances that would be considered problematic, controversial, or repentant left in dust. As the story was set in the 1980s, the aura of disgrace surrounding homosexuality was far more common. For a long time, there was a widespread belief that there was shame in same-sex love, or that it was unnatural and against God’s will. With Oliver and Elio’s budding relationship evolving to a strong admiration, Oliver is put on edge. Oliver was resistant at first, as he says they “haven’t done anything to be ashamed of” and they “can’t talk about those kinds of things.” Same-sex attraction wasn’t the only underlying idea of controversy in Oliver and Elio’s relationship. With the seven-year age difference between the men, Elio being 17 and Oliver 24, it could be viewed as a pedophelic relationship. Some may argue that the story puts a “stamp of approval” on pedophilia, masking it with the beauty of the story. With gender and age confining their relationship, Oliver and Elio also live far from each other. Nothing other than the summer of 1983 ties them together. 

What makes the story so overwhelmingly genuine and beautiful is that despite everything, they were in love. They overcame the stigma around gayness because when their feelings intensified, they had no choice. The story paints Oliver and Elio amidst a deeply genuine and rare romance, as well as proving that love is simply love. While it can be argued that Elio is a minor and Oliver is too old for him, pedophiles are also known as sexual predators; it is apparent in the story that in no way is Oliver preying on Elio, exclusively attracted to children, or fetishizing his adolescence. Instead, their romance buds from a place of observation, or even contemplation. It first came off as condescending, jealous, slightly trivial. However, their fondness for each other overpowers adversities in their situation in the eye of society. Their ephemeral love follows no rules. It is pure and vivid, uncaring of whether their ages or genders align, if they live near to each other, if they would be thought of as shameful, if what they wanted could fit under a label. It just was; they just loved, untouched, once there was a release of all margins. 

The story of Oliver and Elio is the birth of everything people may have said no to before. The captivating composition of the plot allows for the beauty of love to overcome everything else. It shows them as doing everything society would have labeled as wrong, yet still being absolutely pure, amidst an inexplicable experience. 

My idea for this piece came when I was rewatching the Call Me By Your Name film. I love it for everything it is, and I felt that what it stands for is something I am passionate enough to write about. I love the purity of the story, how unwaveringly true it felt, and the impeccable way it captivated that fleeting sense of romance. The rawness of the chemistry had my heart gripped, and I felt like writing about what made me feel so intensely, as well as speak of all it represents, would be something that I’d really love to do. I wrote this all in one sitting on a Sunday morning, sort of engrossed with the story, and essence of the summer it portrayed. I took a break from it for a little while, to let my words sit and to let my brain rest. I let a couple family members read or edit it, and I walked it through a Critical Essay Rubric. At first, I doubted my writing, and wasn’t proud of it. However, over some time, I grew to appreciate it because of the joy I got from writing it.

Maya Cruz is a New York City born and raised daughter, sister, and student. She has a burning passion for the arts and the overlap they have with the natural world. Writing especially has helped her evolve her perspective, which she hopes to continue sharing.

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Poetry in Verse: Exploring the Themes of Longing and Loss in Call Me By Your Name

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman is a poetic testament to a summer of love, longing and queerness nestled in the bosom of Italy. This essay seeks to dive into the themes of longing and loss it contains.

In the realms of literature, few narratives possess the unique ability to ensnare the readers within the intricate web of emotions they weave. You’d think it’s about the story – adrenaline-pumping adventures, mind-numbing twists, and whirlwind romances. But more often than not, the key isn’t what intricate plot the author has come up with. The beauty of a book may rely on the author’s skill to keep you hooked – the writing itself. Such is the case with André Aciman’s novel, Call Me By Your Name . The book, first published in 2007, has gracefully etched its name onto the canvas of modern storytelling.

Call Me By Your Name follows the journey of Elio, a precocious 17-year-old lounging away his summer against the picturesque backdrop of the Italian Riviera, and Oliver, a charming scholar from America. As they proceed to live within the same house, interacting and slowly getting to know each other, you are transported into a sun-drenched, aching romance that will leave you wanting more. While the story may seem like a typical run-of-the-mill, off-the-shelf love, Aciman turns it into a tale that speaks of a universal human yearning for connection, the pangs of desire, and the emptiness of loss. We dive into a world where longing is not just a sentiment – but a living, breathing entity, a character in itself, pulsating through every sentence said and unsaid.

In this essay, we shall explore how the author manages to capture both fleeting and binding emotions into an intense romantic episode.

Poetic style of writing

Centering on themes of longing and loss, the movie adaptation: translating longing and loss to the screen, by the same author: love and acceptance in a heteronormative society: themes in simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli , exploring themes and writing style in call me by your name.

Aciman’s writing can be described as a symphony of words instead of just words strung together to make grammatical or logical sense. There is a certain lilt and poetic sensibility that appears and transcends description. The running theme throughout the book, to simplify it, is yearning full of youthfulness. The author’s choice of words, the rhythm of his sentences, and the evocative imagery he employs craft a lyrical narrative that lingers on your mind way past the book’s pages. They read like verses of a poem, case in point, the following situation.

In a moment of reflection about his memorable summer, Elio once remarks, “Smells and sounds I’d grown up with and known every year of my life until then but that had suddenly turned on me and acquired an inflection forever colored by the events of that summer.”

Also Read: Call Me By Your Name (2017) – An intense exploration of first Love 

The language used in the book serves as a carrier through carefully chosen words to elevate a character’s emotions at any given point, making their sorrows and desires tangible to the observer. It immerses you and helps amplify the intensity of the way Elio longs for Oliver and vice versa. 

Longing – and yearning – is the emotional undercurrent that propels the narrative ahead. Treated as a fundamental need that drives the actions and thoughts of the main characters, Aciman skilfully depicts the manifestation of these feelings in each. This leads to an artful showcase of Elio’s internal struggles with his identity and battle with his feelings, Oliver’s plans for the near future, and the unspoken back-and-forth between members of Elio’s family, who also form a major part in the occurrences while maintaining an ostensibly backstage role for most of the book.

Elio’s struggles are a mixture of teenage infatuation and profound emotional connection, while Oliver’s struggles are masked by his eventual vain attempts at keeping a distance. A powerful instance of this struggle is captured in one of their conversations, which goes as follows:

Elio: “If only you knew how little I know about the things that really matter.”

Oliver: “What things that matter?”

Elio: “You know what things.”

And scene. Sigh.

Here, much is said without saying much, as is the case with multiple dialogues that may baffle most people. But it is those who have loved similarly and experienced such loss who understand, nay, feel the meaning behind these words. To put it simply, this is precocious Elio’s way to let Oliver know, “ I like you, deeply .” Oliver understands it, but neither of the protagonists wants to admit it out loud; it is an implicit agreement in bold. The characters often speak in seemingly mysterious, eclectic terms, appearing as if they have come to an understanding only with each other and nobody else.

Additionally, the novel is set at the Italian Riviera, a place of stunning beauty and idyllic landscapes. The languid summers, tranquil shores, and cyclic lanes serve as the perfect backdrop for a dreamy romantic escapade and allow you to live inside the setting and watch as the love unfolds.

Without taking up much of the joy of reading the actual book, let’s say that loss permeates the narrative as well, reminding us of the ephemeral nature of joy. It settles itself as the aftermath of longing, the emptiness that may settle when things don’t go as planned. Elio introspects years later about his summer, and this section underlines the lasting impact of his connection with Oliver. The loss of innocence, of an opportunity, of unspoken words. The heart-wrenching moment of separation bundled with the realization of what might have been. The theme of loss transforms from a plot device into a resonant emotional experience for us all.

“In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don’t snuff it out, don’t be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we’d want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything – what a waste!”

Also Read: Celebrating Pride Month: 10 LGBTQ+ Fiction Classics You Need to Read

The poignant book is brought to life in the 2017 movie adaptation of the same name. Directed by Luca Guadagnino , an artist popular for creating movies characterized by their emotional complexity, the movie has struck a chord with audiences and critics alike. Breathing life into evocative storytelling with breathtaking visuals, the actors’ performances have been lauded as well.

Translating Aciman’s writing into the visual medium presented its challenges. However, the movie successfully manages to capture a good portion of it – a golden shower seems to envelop the photography, lending a certain warmth to the two-hour run. Timothée Chalamet ‘ s portrayal of Elio and Armie Hammer’s Oliver brings a tangible vulnerability to their relationship, while their chemistry simmers profusely beneath the surfaces. Along with these visual aids, the movie’s soundtrack is a soothing and loving tribute to the story, adding to its overall melancholic beauty.

Call Me By Your Name is a deftly written novel that explores the complexity of human emotion and connection. It captures what it means to long for deeply and creates melodies out of romantic settings. The book shall leave you with a bittersweet appreciation for the happiness as well as the pain that tears through. It invites the readers to unravel fictional hearts and cherish the power of words as they are planted in your souls.

Lighting and Landscapes: The Movie “Call Me by Your Name”

Throughout the movie Call Me by Your Name , both lighting and landscapes play a central role in promoting the metaphorical semantics and emotional background. Elio is generally shown in darkness in a number of scenes, such as in the bathroom (Guadagnino 00:06:15-00:06:19). The dark lighting setting can also be observed during the bedroom scene, where Elio is having difficulty waking up (Guadagnino 00:40:35-00:41:50). Such an approach is used to convey the personality of the character. Elio is an illustration of an introverted and slightly depressed individual who does not adhere to the norms of sociability. He seems to be more feminine energy compared to Oliver, and his emotions are most positive during the scene where he is depicted with his lover. The majority of scenes showing Oliver are done in bright light, such as during the conversation between the character and Elio’s father (Guadagnino 01:11:04-01:11:15). The key reason is that Oliver is the one who is bringing happiness to Elio’s world as a gift from foreign lands. It is evident that although both characters are the main ones, the film is mostly centered around Elio. Thus, Elio’s dark and grim life is enlightened by Oliver’s appearance.

Wide shots of landscapes are also critically important for the film’s progression. The sweeping landscape scene can be observed during the shots, where Elio and Oliver are bicycling on the road (Guadagnino 00:53:00-00:53:05). Such sceneries build the basis for the development of their relationship, which allows the director to follow up wide shots with intimate and up-close face shots. Therefore, the effect of the sweeping scenes introduces uplifting and non-sexual romantic moments, whereas close shots are designed to convey intimacy between Elio and Oliver.

Call Me by Your Name . Directed by Luca Guadagnino, performance by Timothee Chalamet, Sony Pictures Classics, 2017.

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John Oliver Warns Viewers Of Donald Trump's "Cash Grab" Schemes, ‘Call Me By Your Name' Peach Makes Cameo & Host Dings Uber Eats For Diddy Ad

John Oliver roasted Donald Trump on Last Week Tonight for his “cash grab” schemes as the former POTUS makes another run for the White House.

“This year, more than ever, everything Trump does is going to be a cash grab,” Oliver said on the HBO late-night show. “This year has been one of the few times he’s actually been asked to pay the price for his actions but already, he’s got other people footing the bill.”

Oliver said Trump was “monetizing his bad behavior,” which could be summed up by a t-shirt he’s selling featuring his mugshot and the caption “Not Guilty” across the front.

The comedian went through a list of things Trump had been doing to raise money to pay for his legal troubles, using his followers to foot the bill.

“That is a man who talks non-stop about how he’s one of the richest men on Earth, begging strangers for money in a hostage video that looks that it was filmed in a house haunted by the world’s tackiest ghosts,” Oliver said of a video Trump shared pleading his fans to donate money.

Oliver also noted Trump was selling a Bible, cologne, sneakers, a mini speaker with a cartoon Trump, and earbuds in a golden case. Also worth noting was the digital platform Truth Social going public “with shares blowing past expectations” as his followers bought stock, raising the company’s valuation.

In the show’s main story of the night, Oliver talked about food delivery service apps. He dinged Uber Eats for the Sean “Diddy” Combs Super Bowl commercial, given the allegations against the rapper that surfaced this week .

“I’m guessing Uber Eats might be regretting that last one right now,” Oliver said.

In an ad for Postmates targeting the LQBTQ+ community, an eggplant, and a peach symbolized parts of the human anatomy.

Oliver then referenced a memorable scene from the 2017 Luca Guadagnino film that featured Timothée Chalamet pleasuring himself with a peach.

“By the way, it is good to see the peach from Call Me By Your Name staying booked and busy — gay parts should go to gay actors,” he quipped.

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'Call Me By Your Name' Star Michael Stuhlbarg Attacked In Central Park

Trends Reporter

Actor Michael Stuhlbarg reportedly was injured in a random attack Sunday in New York City .

The “ Boardwalk Empire ” star was taking an evening stroll near Central Park in Manhattan when someone threw a rock at his neck, the New York Police Department confirmed to multiple media outlets Monday.

Police told People the incident occurred around 7:45 p.m. near 90th Street and East Drive and that the 55-year-old victim chased his attacker to the front of the Russian Consulate on East 91st. The 27-year-old suspect, Xavier Israel, was arrested nearby at 8 p.m.

The suspect has a criminal record and was arrested in 2022 on charges of second-degree felony robbery, Pix11 reported . He was charged with two other misdemeanors at the time but was deemed unfit to stand trial after a mental health exam.

Despite being transferred to mental health officials for treatment back then, he remained in custody due to his felony robbery charge. Israel was eventually convicted and sent to state prison in November 2023 to finish the remainder of a two-year sentence.

He was still on parole for the conviction when he was arrested Sunday.

The decorated actor reportedly suffered a small injury to his neck but declined to be treated. Stuhlbarg, known for his supporting role in “ Call Me By Your Name ” (2017), shrugged the injury off to perform the first night of previews Monday for Broadway’s “ Patriots .”

“The entire ‘Patriots’ company fully supports Mr. Stuhlbarg, who feels fine and is looking forward to performing on stage tonight,” the production told Playbill , The Hollywood Reporter and New York Times in a statement Monday.

As evident by footage on Instagram , the actor took a deserved bow after the show.

The play stars Stuhlbarg as Boris Berezovsky, a late Russian oligarch who used his post-Soviet Russia fortune to help Vladimir Putin become president. Berezovsky became a vocal critic of the Kremlin afterward, however, and died in exile in 2013 .

“When an eventual successor to President Boris Yeltsin is needed, Berezovsky turns to the little-known deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. … But soon Putin’s ruthless rise threatens Berezovsky’s reign, setting off a … near-Shakespearean confrontation,” reads a synopsis.

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Call Me by Your Name (2017 Film)

The film version of 'call me by your name' - research on masculinity and sexuality anonymous 12th grade.

“This gorgeous coming-of-age tale oozes nostalgic melancholy and avoids the clichés in many films about gay love,” (Jones, 2018).

Set in 1983, Luca Guadagnino’s film Call Me by Your Name, embodies a profound interpretation of sexuality (in particular, same-sex love) and masculinity. Based on the 2007 novel by André Aciman, protagonist Elio Perlman, played by Timothée Chalamet, is spending the days with his family at their 17th-century villa in Lombardy, Italy, when he meets 24-year-old doctoral student Oliver. The concepts of sexuality and masculinity gave me an intimate insight into the human psyche in Call Me by Your Name, which beautifully illustrated gestures right down to the tiny nuances that make people tick. Indeed, Call Me by Your Name is a positive step for the LGBT movement, through the ways in which it unravels the unease surrounding same-sex love and masculinity.

Some of the most widely recognized (by society) characteristics that make up an individual are to do with gender, femininity/masculinity, and sexuality. After their appearance, these are also some of the first things to be judged by society. It’s as if everyone was expected to fit into a tiny, categorized box of regularities in order to deem them...

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